Davit Jojua

Overview

Davit Jojua (born June 8, 1989) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster (GM) representing the Georgian Chess Federation (GEO). He was awarded the FIDE Master (FM) title in 2004, the International Master (IM) title in 2007, and attained the Grandmaster title in 2009. His career-high classical FIDE rating is 2601, achieved in February 2018. Jojua's competitive identity combines his achievements as an elite tournament competitor—most notably winning the Georgian Chess Championship in 2016—with a highly prominent career as a FIDE Senior Trainer (certified in 2015). In this coaching capacity, he has served as the captain and chief coach of the Georgian women’s national team, leading them to multiple gold medals at major team championships.

Biography & Major Career Milestones

Born in Samtredia, Georgia, Jojua developed rapidly through the national and continental junior chess ranks. He achieved significant podium finishes at international youth championships:

• Third place at the European Under-10 Championship in Litochoro (1999).
• Third place at the European Under-14 Championship in Iraklion (2002).
• Second place (silver medal) at the European Under-16 Championship in Herceg Novi (2005).
• Shared first place at the Georgian Under-16 Championship in Tbilisi (2005).

Jojua completed his Grandmaster title requirements by securing his norms across strong international tournaments between 2007 and 2009:

• First GM Norm: Achieved at the Archil Ebralidze Memorial in Tbilisi (April 2007), which he won outright with a score of 7.5/10.
• Second GM Norm: Earned at the World Junior (U20) Chess Championship in Yerevan (October 2007), where he placed 10th.
• Third GM Norm: Secured at the European Individual Chess Championship in Plovdiv (May 2008), scoring an over-performing 6.5/11.
• Additional Norms: He secured further redundant norms at the Arcapita International Championship in Manama, Bahrain (February 2009) and the 25th Cappelle-la-Grande Open (2009), where he finished fifth.

FIDE officially conferred his Grandmaster title in April 2009 after he surpassed the required 2500 rating threshold.

Among his major individual national and open tournament triumphs:

• Georgian Chess Championship (2016): Jojua won the 75th national title in Tbilisi, defeating GM Tornike Sanikidze 2–0 in the tie-break final after tying their classical games.
• Georgian Chess Championship (2017): Finished as runner-up, losing the national title on tie-break to GM Luka Paichadze after both players finished on 5.5/9.
• Roquetas de Mar Open (2018): Finished in joint first place, securing the trophy on tie-break with a 7/9 score.
• Varna Open (2010): Won the 4th Varna Open in Bulgaria with 7/9, winning on tie-break.
• Tigran Petrosian Memorial (2009): Won the round-robin memorial tournament in Tbilisi.
• Georgian Men's Rapid Championship (2023): Clinched the rapid crown (Nana Ioseliani Cup) on tie-breaks over GM Gaioz Nigalidze.

Additionally, Jojua co-founded the Georgian Chess Academy Online, which focuses on youth development internationally, and captains "Davit Jojua's Chess Club," which represented the federation at the 40th European Chess Club Cup in Rhodes (2025).

Elite Team & Event Performance

As a player and high-level team captain, Jojua has directed several elite campaigns:

• FIDE World Women's Team Championship (2015): Served as captain of the Georgian Women's national team, leading them to a gold medal victory in Chengdu, China.
• European Team Chess Championship (2015): Captained the Georgian Women's national team in Reykjavik, Iceland.
• Baku Chess Olympiad (2016): Served as captain and coach of the Georgian Women's national team.
• FIDE World Women's Team Championship (2023): Headed the national team as chief coach and captain, guiding Georgia to its second world team gold medal in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
• European Chess Club Cup (2025): Acted as captain for "Davit Jojua's Chess Club" in the Open division.
• Abu Dhabi Masters (2018): Registered his strongest individual career victory by defeating top-seeded GM Le Quang Liem (2727) in the final round of the tournament.

Playing Style, Material Tendencies & Endgame Profiling

Jojua plays in a solid, classical positional manner. He prioritizes structural soundness, King safety, and space advantages, preferring the systematic restriction of his opponent's active counterplay over volatile, double-edged tactical complications.

His middlegame planning is highly logical and relies on maintaining pawn structures that deny central outposts to enemy minor pieces. Rather than accepting premature pawn weaknesses, Jojua prefers patient maneuvering behind a reliable shield, shifting his pieces to execute favorable central pawn breaks only when his king safety is entirely assured. When material imbalances occur, he shows a strong technical affinity for the bishop pair and handles Carlsbad-style structures or queenless middlegames with positional precision.

In the endgame, Jojua is a technical converter. He possesses excellent technique in minor-piece endgames, especially exploiting the slight positional advantages of an active knight versus a restricted bishop or capitalizing on opponent pawn weaknesses. He has also demonstrated remarkable resilience in passive defense, maintaining high-accuracy play during grueling, ultra-long defensive endgames to construct defensive fortresses and save difficult half-points.

Opening Repertoire & Theoretical Move Orders

Jojua’s opening repertoire is structurally cohesive and emphasizes solid positional foundations.

1. As White

Jojua is primarily a 1. d4 player, occasionally using 1. Nf3 transpositional lines to reach his favored closed structures.

• The Catalan Opening: Jojua heavily favors the Catalan, squeezing black in the center and working the long light-squared diagonal:
• King's Indian Defense (Fianchetto Variation): Against the King's Indian, Jojua avoids the sharpest classical variations by employing the positional Fianchetto System to keep the center under control:
• Queen's Gambit Declined (Exchange Positional Lines): Against 1...d5 setups, Jojua commonly switches to the Exchange variation to fight for the central squares:

2. As Black

Jojua maintains a diverse and combative defensive structure against both 1. e4 and 1. d4.

• Against 1. e4: Jojua primarily relies on the Sicilian Defense, leaning toward the Sicilian Kan for its structural flexibility:
  He also implements the highly theoretical Sicilian Scheveningen:
• Against 1. d4: Jojua employs the King's Indian Defense as his primary weapon against the queen's pawn, frequently steering toward the Orthodox classical structures:
  As a solid alternative, Jojua utilizes the Queen's Gambit Declined (Ragozin Variation) to actively fight for the center with his minor pieces:

Links

• FIDE: https://ratings.fide.com/profile/13602543
• Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawit_Dschodschua